Actually Jan it is not Typical of ANYTHING that happens in Dover!
Ross, you haven't heard anything yet because it has not be launched yet.
The launch of Make it Happen will be at the Jobs Fair at the Town Hall next week. The programme has been inspired by some approaches we have had from agencies wanting money from the Town Team to support their business which is to provide information and help for those wanting to get back to work or more specifically to become self-employed.
It seemed to us that really when you look at it hard, all that happens (and there will of course be exceptions, we realise this) is that the agency businesses live on to go and get more funding etc, etc. Another thing that came through was that in the several that we looked at there was an element of discrimination. Positive for sure, but we do not want to attract Women, or Ex Convicts, Black People, Yellow People, Gays or Young People. We want PEOPLE. Just people. We are not interested in what they are or what they were. What we intend to do is help them on the way to what they want to be. We also came across some schemes that were free to begin with and then required a hefty fee.
So, instead of putting thousands of pounds in to other people's business, we have decided that we will pull together a whole host of local business people who will impart the knowledge at no fee. They will include, a solicitor, an accountant, a banker, a commercial estate agent, a trainer, a recruiter, a printer, a retailer, a web person, a generic person in business and of course the Town Team people. Not an exhaustive list.
We expect that during the 12 weeks of the programme we will have convinced many of the applicants that they are not suited to being self employed and they will fall away. We fully expect also that there will be enough people who will be inspired by real people telling their story and hearing from the Professionals how to go about it. At the end of it all the two budding entrepreneurs who have shown the best aptitude will be awarded a Town Team Grant in the form of seed funding to help them on their way. The level of the award is not yet confirmed, but is likely to be around £2000 which isn't a fortune, but never the less can only be useful to a new venture.
The Town Team are re-investing the Market receipts in to the Town in this way because we want to ensure that the money we earn stays in Dover. We want to be a force for progress and we want to do things rather than simply talk about them for years.
There will be proper details available very soon and adverts will be placed. I think David was giving a little teaser pending the launch.
I was not intending to put any more meat on the bone at this stage, but the start of negativity on here has forced my hand. David and John Angel have put in an immense amount of work on this!
